In the field of this invention it is known that many types of computer hardware are able to perform self-diagnosis of impending failure conditions. For example, computer hard disk drives are arranged to generate predictive failure analysis information. Furthermore error recovery in disk drives has improved in recent years such that devices can continue to function for many months or years with a high recovered error rate.
However with time a point may arrive at which the unrecovered error rate becomes unacceptably high, or the number or severity of the recovered errors may become symptomatic of an impending total failure. Predictive failure analysis algorithms within the disk drive firmware are used to estimate this point and to generate alerts to users, informing them that a service action should be scheduled to replace the hardware which may be about to fail. Such alerts are critical for server based data storage systems. Although advances in redundancy and back-up technology now mean that in many cases little or no data loss will result when such a failure occurs, nevertheless the resulting ‘downtime’ of such a system while recovery actions are taken and new hardware is ordered and installed may be unacceptable for many business applications. Early warning of such failure enables users to plan for and minimise such disruption.
However, this approach has the disadvantage(s) that these predictive failure analysis algorithms are devised while the device is under development and are based upon the data available at that time, such as early test results, experience with previous drive generations and the results of accelerated ageing tests (thermal or vibration stress). The error tolerance in such algorithms is therefore relatively wide.
It is necessary to set the threshold at which a device is called out for replacement to a fairly high level to avoid expensive hardware replacement costs, however this is difficult to do with such a wide error tolerance without risking an unacceptably high number of errors for the user.
Disk drive manufacturers typically receive predictive failure analysis information from disk drives that have been called out for replacement on a per device basis, but recovered error information is not typically received from the drives that are functioning within their tolerances.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,123,017 discloses a system in which sensors are retrofitted to different elements of a hardware system and are arranged to send information over a closed network to a central location. The information is used for diagnosing failures in order to facilitate the field replacement of faulty elements. In addition the information is used for predicting future failures.
A need therefore exists for an improved device, system and method for predictive failure analysis wherein the abovementioned disadvantages may be alleviated.